Filters in Halftone Visual Cryptography Via Error Diffusion: Analysis and Enhancement

Secure digital imaging is an important research area combining methods and techniques coming from cryptography and image processing. Visual cryptography and in general secret image sharing techniques enable distributing sensitive visual materials to involved participants through public communication channels, as the generated secure images do not reveal any information if they are not combined in the prescribed way. In visual cryptography, the decoding process is performed directly by the human eyes; while in general, the shared images need some processing to reconstruct the secret image. The increasing number of possibilities to create, publishes, and distributes images calls for novel protection methods, offering new sharing and access control mechanisms for the information contained in the published images. Secure image sharing techniques overcome the traditional cryptographic approach, providing new solutions for the development of new and secure imaging applications.